Compound in Broccoli May Protect from Macular Degeneration

"Buck Institute study also shows that palmitoleic acid protects the retina from environmental damage in mouse models of disease," according to Medical News Today. "Buck researchers boosted the potency of a broccoli-related compound by ten times and identified it as a possible treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss affecting more than 10 million older Americans. The research, published in Scientific Reports, also highlights the role of lipid metabolism in maintaining the health of the retina, reporting that palmitoleic acid also had protective effects on retinal cells in culture and in mice. The "good-for-you" compound in broccoli which prompted the inquiry is indole-3-carbinol (I3C), which is currently being studied for cancer prevention." Read more.

Anti-VEGF's Improve Helps Patients with AMD Sustain Vision

In a study of nearly 650 people with the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD), half still had vision 20/40 or better, typically good enough to drive or to read standard print, after five years of treatment with anti-VEGF drugs that are injected into the eye. The authors of the study, funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) at the National Institutes of Health, say those outcomes would have been unimaginable about 10 years ago, prior to the drugs’ availability. Read more.

New Test Detects First Signs of Macular Degeneration (AMD)

"Researchers based at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, received funding from Fight for Sight and the Special Trustees of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust which has resulted in the design of a new test that can spot the first stages of sight loss in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The test could lead to earlier diagnosis for millions of people worldwide. Professor Roger Anderson led the research team." That's the beginning of a post on Medical News Today.

New Target for AMD Therapies

"Scientists have good news for patients who suffer from currently untreatable dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD)," notes Science Digest. "In a new study, researchers identified a potential target for future therapies to slow the progression of the blinding condition. The findings indicate that treatments currently used for other conditions could also work for dry AMD." Read more.

New Macular Degeneration Treatment with Stem Cells

"Age-related macular degeneration (AMRD) could be treated by transplanting photoreceptors produced by the directed differentiation of stem cells, thanks to findings published today by Professor Gilbert Bernier of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. ARMD is a common eye problem caused by the loss of cones, " according to Medical News Today. "Bernier's team has developed a highly effective in vitro technique for producing light sensitive retina cells from human embryonic stem cells. 'Our method has the capacity to differentiate 80% of the stem cells into pure cones,' Professor Gilbert explained. 'Within 45 days, the cones that we allowed to grow towards confluence spontaneously formed organised retinal tissue that was 150 microns thick. This has never been achieved before.'" Read more.

Vitamin D's Role in the Development of Macular Degeneration

"Vitamin D has been studied extensively in relation to bone health as well as cancer. Now, a team led by a researcher at the University at Buffalo has discovered that vitamin D may play a significant role in eye health, specifically in the possible prevention of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, among women who are more genetically prone to developing the sight-damaging disease," according to Science Daily. "In a paper published in JAMA Ophthalmology online, Amy Millen, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions, and her team found that women who are deficient in vitamin D and have a specific high-risk genotype are 6.7 times more likely to develop AMD than women with sufficient vitamin D status and no high risk genotype." Read more.

Aspirin's Benefits Outweigh AMD Risks, Says Study

"Patients can continue to take aspirin as recommended by their primary care physicians without fear of worsening their macular degeneration, researchers say," reports Medscape. "'Taking patients off aspirin can cause premature morbidity and mortality," said Kent Small, MD, from Los Angeles, California. He presented a meta-analysis o' aspirin, cardiovascular disease, and age-related macular degeneration here at the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) 2015 Annual Meeting. Dr Small explained that he got interested in the topic when he realized that his patients were reacting to reports in the media of studies linking macular degeneration to aspirin use." Read more.

Stem Cells Used to Treat Macular Degeneration

"An injection of stem cells into the eye may soon slow or reverse the effects of early-stage age-related macular degeneration, according to new research from scientists at Cedars-Sinai," according to Medical News Today. "The stem cell injection resulted in 130 days of preserved vision in laboratory rats, which roughly equates to 16 years in humans." Read more.

Number of Individuals and Treatment Costs for AMD to Rise Dramatically by Middle of Century

The number of individuals with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will jump from two million to 3.4 million by 2032 and 4.4 million by 2050, according to the recent Prevent Blindness report called “Future of Vision: Forecasting the Prevalence and Costs of Vision Problems.” Treatment costs now run $4.9 billion a year, but they will increase to almost $10 billion in 2032 and $14 billion in 2050.The report notes that the current average age of AMD patients is 80. As a greater number individuals live beyond 80, the number of patients with AMD will increase. Whites and women, who are at higher risk for AMD than other groups, will continue to dominate the total affected population with AMD. Read more.

Calcium Deposits Possible Source of Macular Degeneration (AMD)

"New research from scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) has found that tiny lumps of calcium phosphate may be an important triggering factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a degenerative eye disease that can cause severe vision loss and blindness," reports Medical News Today. "This is the first time these mineral deposits have been implicated in the disease, which affects more than 10 million Americans. The article appeared in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Read more.

The Rise of the Expensive Lucentis

"When the drug maker Genentech introduced a major product in 2006, it found itself in an awkward position: persuading eye doctors to start using its new more expensive drug instead of a popular cheaper version that the company already sold," according to a New York Times post. "Ophthalmologists had been enthusiastically using the company’s cancer drug Avastin, which cost about $50 a dose, to treat a common eye disease in the elderly, wet macular degeneration. Then Genentech introduced Lucentis, a nearly equivalent drug that cost $2,000 a dose and was approved specifically to treat the disease.Use of Lucentis took off..." Read more.

HIV/AIDS Drugs to Treat AMD? Laser Surgery Shows Promise

“A landmark study published today in the journal Science by an international group of scientists, led by the laboratory of Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, professor & vice chair of the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the University of Kentucky, reports that HIV/AIDS drugs that have been used for the last 30 years could be repurposed to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as other inflammatory disorders, because of a previously undiscovered intrinsic and inflammatory activity those drugs possess,” reports Science Daily. “Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are the most widely used class of anti-HIV drugs. NRTIs are thought to be therapeutic in HIV/AIDS patients because they target the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which is critical for replication of HIV. Previous work from the Ambati lab found that a type of toxic molecule called Alu RNA accumulate in the retina to cause dry AMD; interestingly, Alu RNA and HIV are similar in that they both require reverse transcriptase to fulfill their life cycle.” Read more.

Meanwhile, “a new type of laser treatment has the potential to slow progression of age-related macular degeneration - a major cause of vision loss - without damaging the retina,” notes Medical News Today. “This was the conclusion of a study from the University of Melbourne in Australia, published in The FASEB Journal. Erica Fletcher, an associate professor in Melbourne's Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, and colleagues examined the effectiveness of a new low-impact, low-energy, laser treatment for patients with early age-related macular degeneration (AMD).” Read more.

High Concentrations of Oxygen May Cause AMD

"High concentrations [of oxygen], referred to as oxidative stress, may very well be the cause of more than 70 widely-spread diseases such as cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and eye diseases including macular degeneration," according to a Medical News Today post. "Scientists at Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, as well as the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, have found that sulindac, a known anti-inflammatory drug, can protect against oxidative damage due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the primary causes of vision loss in the elderly. Their findings were released in an article titled "Pharmacological protection of retinal pigmented epithelial cells by sulindac involves PPAR-α" in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences." Read more.

AMD Starts Earlier Than Once Thought

“It is widely accepted that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of visual impairment and blindness in industrialized countries. However, it is questionable whether it can continue to be defined as a disease in people in their 50s and beyond,” reports Science Daily. “Investigations to determine the incidence of age-related macular degeneration undertaken as part of the Gutenberg Health Study of the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have shown that even persons under the age of 50 years may be affected by an early form of the eye disease. Just under 4 percent of the 35 to 44-year-old subjects in the population-based study were found to be suffering from AMD.” Read more.

Treating AMD-Related Depression

A multi-disciplinary rehabilitation therapy can cut the risk of AMD-related depression in half, says a new study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings were published in Ophthalmology. The trial recruited 188 participants with bilateral AMD from an ophthalmology practice affiliated with Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. They averaged 84 years, 70 percent were women, and half percent lived alone. Their best corrected vision was no better than 20/70. Participants manifested mild depressive symptoms and were at risk for developing clinical depression. Read more about the trial at NEI. The findings were published in Ophthalmology.

Researchers Make Connection between AMD and High Blood Pressure

"There may be a connection between taking vasodilators and developing early-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss and blindness among Americans who are age 65 and older, according to a study published online in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology," reports Medical News Today. "AMD - the deterioration of the eye's macula, which is responsible for the ability to see fine details clearly - affects an estimated 11 million people in the United States." Read more.

In Developing Countries, Blindness Down, AMD Up

“Rates of blindness and impaired eyesight have plummeted over the past 20 years in the developed world,” reports Science Daily. “But macular degeneration has replaced cataract as the leading cause of blindness in rich countries, reveals an analysis of the available.” Read more.

Supplements Lower Cataract & AMD Risk in Men

“Long-term daily multivitamin supplement use may lower cataract risk in men, according to a study of nearly 15,000 male physicians,” reports Science Daily. “Half took a common daily multivitamin, as well as vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene supplements. The other half took a placebo. The researchers followed the participants to identify how many participants in each group developed new cases of two common eye diseases: cataract and age-related macular degeneration. Results showed a 9 percent decrease in risk for those that took the supplements.” Read more.

Macular Degeneration: Making People Vulnerable

"Cynthia Gibbs-Pratt would rather walk into walls than use a cane to guide her. And often, she does," reports the New York Times. "She had 20/20 vision most of her life. Last April, Ms. Gibbs-Pratt, 47, learned she had macular degeneration, a progressive disease that robs those who have it of their sight. 'If somebody came to you today with this cane and said you had to use it, would you accept it?' she asked." Read more.

New Approach to Treating Eye Disease

"Researchers have revealed a new approach for treating human eye disease that has proved to be successful in preclinical studies. This is according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation," according to a Medical News Today post. "The research team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in California, Mount Sinai Hospital in Canada and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), say their findings could lead to new treatments to prevent blindness. Many types of blindness, including diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration, can be linked to the abnormal growth of blood vessels (neovascularization) in the retina at the back of the eye, the researchers explain. The retina is a thin layer of soft tissue consisting of blood vessels and light-sensing cells." Read more.